Cryptocoin Mining?

[taltamir]

Some of us can't buy new videocards like candy bars, so I'm using what I have. I'm not interested in "making money", I'm interested in making bitcoins. I believe it is a more honest money that the fraud perpetrated on us by fiat currencies. Even slowly accumulating them now is better than not accumulating them at all, because any fraction of a fixed amount is better than a dwindling fraction of a hyperinflated amount of dollars.

While I share your sentiment, you should be aware that the only solution is to vote in better representatives who will handle money properly.
They have a monopoly of violence and its in their interest to perpetuate the fraud that is fiat money.

So what does that mean? It means that alternative currencies keep on getting shut down, hard.
A gold backed currency? Shut down and all the gold and silver confiscated and managers arrested and thrown in prison (its counterfeit money to have notes that don't claim to be legal tender backed by gold).
Alternative fiat currencies like bitcoin? Those get shut down a few years after inception.
Just trading in the raw metals? They introduce laws requiring obscene amount of paperwork and heavy taxes.

 

[LightRider]

There is no practical way to shut down bitcoin.

 

[pcm81]

1. It's value has crashed.
2. It costs in electrical bills more to mine them than they are worth.
3. For all practical purposes bitcoin is shut down.

 

[Don Karnage]

I'm trying to login but it keeps giving me bad credentials.

 

[pcm81]

According to my calculations; running my current system for mining will yield 4 cents per hour profit.

 

[MrTeal]

According to my calculations; running my current system for mining will yield 4 cents per hour profit.

What's you cost for electricity? Running two 6950s flashed to 6970s at 900MHz core 200MHz memory running on a 2500k system draws 350W at the wall with an 80+ Bronze PSU. I would be surprised if you pulled much more than 700W with proper setup while you're just mining and not using it for anything else.

 

[pcm81]

What's you cost for electricity? Running two 6950s flashed to 6970s at 900MHz core 200MHz memory running on a 2500k system draws 350W at the wall with an 80+ Bronze PSU. I would be surprised if you pulled much more than 700W with proper setup while you're just mining and not using it for anything else.

i pull 1.2KW at the wall with everything on... I guess my 27" LED is 50 watts of that...

electricity is 14c/KWH

 

[alkemyst]

pcm81, what's hooked up that is drawing 1200W? You drying your hair at the same time

 

[pcm81]

pcm81, what's hooked up that is drawing 1200W? You drying your hair at the same time

Lets do some math:
2x OCed 6990s at 950 MHz about 400 to 425 wats each. 850W
5x 2Tb drives, 30 W each, but usually 1 is actually spinning so 30W
Core I7 980X - OCed at 4GHz - 200W
Monitor - 50W
Printer, speakers, priherals idling - 25W
water cooling pump + fans -25W

850+30+200+50+25+25= 1180W



The UPS units report combined output of 1.2 KW...

 

[taltamir]

5x 2Tb drives, 30 W each, but usually 1 is actually spinning so 30W

A 3.5" HDD takes about 4-5 watts on write, 3-4 read, 2-3 idle.
I don't think there has ever been a 30W HDD. Only CPUs and GPUs get away with such power consumption figures.

 

[pcm81]

A 3.5" HDD takes about 4-5 watts on write, 3-4 read, 2-3 idle.
I don't think there has ever been a 30W HDD. Only CPUs and GPUs get away with such power consumption figures.

http://www.pcpower.com/technology/power_usage/

But even if we count my HDDs as 0 watts, i am still up in 1100 watt range.

 

[Chiropteran]

http://www.pcpower.com/technology/power_usage/

But even if we count my HDDs as 0 watts, i am still up in 1100 watt range.

Something a bit funny about your numbers.

My FX-8120 [zomg bulldozer uses so much powers!~] w/ 7970, intel ssd, 1tb samsung hard drive, keyboard mouse etc...

Uses 280W from the UPS at full mining, 550mhash

Cut the OC, run stock, and your power consumption should be a lot lower.

Also, your i7 shouldn't be pulling 200W while mining, it should be pulling close to nothing, because mining doesn't stress the cpu.

 

[taltamir]

http://www.pcpower.com/technology/power_usage/

They are simply wrong about HDDs, Mobo, and RAM power consumptions.

Although it is also possible that they are accounting for the fact your average crappy PSU advertises 2-3x more wattage then it is actually capable of delivering sustainably.
But the better solution is buying a quality PSU, one that has a good brand name and solid reviews.

Odd too since PCper actually has good rep, they made crucial discoveries about SSD.

For PSU specific stuff though I recommend http://www.jonnyguru.com/ who specialize in PSU benchmarks.

But even if we count my HDDs as 0 watts, i am still up in 1100 watt range.

Absolutely correct. Your main argument was spot on, I just couldn't let an error stand; even if it makes no difference to the argument as a whole.

I researched HDD power consumption back in the day since people tried to blame my PSU for my GPU issues, saying its not able to supply enough power for my 6 HDDs. I countered with just how insignificant their draw is.

It was the video card.

 

[MrTeal]

Lets do some math:
2x OCed 6990s at 950 MHz about 400 to 425 wats each. 850W
5x 2Tb drives, 30 W each, but usually 1 is actually spinning so 30W
Core I7 980X - OCed at 4GHz - 200W
Monitor - 50W
Printer, speakers, priherals idling - 25W
water cooling pump + fans -25W

850+30+200+50+25+25= 1180W



The UPS units report combined output of 1.2 KW...

The OCed 6990s won't be pulling 400+W if you downclock the memory. Like I said, I have two 1536-shader 6950s running at 900MHz, and my whole system draws 350W with a relatively inefficient PSU at the wall.

Your CPU won't be drawing anywhere near to 200W while mining. The mining program consumes 0% CPU usage on my 2500k.

The monitor doesn't need to be on to mine, and the peripherals would be idling anyway.

I'd say your marginal profit would be higher that 4 cents an hour. I'd guess it'd be more like $3/day or so.

 

[pcm81]

The OCed 6990s won't be pulling 400+W if you downclock the memory. Like I said, I have two 1536-shader 6950s running at 900MHz, and my whole system draws 350W with a relatively inefficient PSU at the wall.

Your CPU won't be drawing anywhere near to 200W while mining. The mining program consumes 0% CPU usage on my 2500k.

The monitor doesn't need to be on to mine, and the peripherals would be idling anyway.

I'd say your marginal profit would be higher that 4 cents an hour. I'd guess it'd be more like $3/day or so.

And after we add in the AC cost, it would cost me money to mine...

 

[IGemini]

And after we add in the AC cost, it would cost me money to mine...

I'm not quite sure how you're figuring this. If you're measuring this from the wall, you're measuring the AC power--not what the PSU is supplying, which is DC. Additional overhead shouldn't be enough to make a difference there. Based on the numbers given by yourself, you should net $50/month or more without even changing anything. (That's net, not gross)

http://bitcoinx.com/profit/index.php

 

[Mir96TA]

Mining in Winter is ok; cause, the by product Heat can offset the runtime of the heater.
But running A/C to compensate heat become moot (If you live south of 49th parallel)
because all profit mitigate by the running cost of A/C.

 

[taltamir]

Mining in Winter is ok; cause you can by product Heat and reduce cost of runtime of the heater.
But running A/C to compensate heat
At best it will off set the profit.

hey, that is a good idea actually .
Its not wasted electricity since it does something useful before 100% of it is converted to useful waste heat.

 

[pcm81]

I'm not quite sure how you're figuring this. If you're measuring this from the wall, you're measuring the AC power--not what the PSU is supplying, which is DC. Additional overhead shouldn't be enough to make a difference there. Based on the numbers given by yourself, you should net $50/month or more without even changing anything. (That's net, not gross)

http://bitcoinx.com/profit/index.php

I have 2 UPS units feeding my PC. Their combined output is 1.2KW so its actually a bit more at the wall since UPSs are not 100% efficient.

I live in FL, so my A/C is on most of the time. Electric bill for A/C will take a healthy byte out of the $50 profit...

I've been mining since march of 2011 on my system. Been there, Done that. Now its no longer worth the hassle; if at all profitable.

If you could get FREE FPGA hardware then it may be worth mining...

 

[Mir96TA]

.

If you could get FREE FPGA hardware then it may be worth mining...

The best way to mine....but as you said COST of the hardware

 

[Chiropteran]

I have 2 UPS units feeding my PC. Their combined output is 1.2KW so its actually a bit more at the wall since UPSs are not 100% efficient.

I live in FL, so my A/C is on most of the time. Electric bill for A/C will take a healthy byte out of the $50 profit...

I don't understand why you have your CPU and video cards overclocked if you are so concerned about power usage. Your computer should be using a small fraction of that 1200 watts normally, unless you for some odd reason have your CPU cool & quiet disabled.

Your problem isn't a bitcoin mining problem, is a computer configuration problem.

 

[pcm81]

I don't understand why you have your CPU and video cards overclocked if you are so concerned about power usage. Your computer should be using a small fraction of that 1200 watts normally, unless you for some odd reason have your CPU cool & quiet disabled.

Your problem isn't a bitcoin mining problem, is a computer configuration problem.

CPU = 30 GFLOP
4x GPUS = 11TFLOPS

I don't mine on CPU.

Yes in theory it is possible to get small profit from my rig. After AC cost about $30/Month... Not worth it though to deal with hot office, or thinking twice about stopping to mine to actually use pc for gaming etc...

 

[LightRider]

1. It's value has crashed.
2. It costs in electrical bills more to mine them than they are worth.
3. For all practical purposes bitcoin is shut down.

1. Bitcoin's "value" is derived from its properties, not its valuation.
2. There are energy sources that do not cost money.
3. It may be difficult to exchange the currency for fiat through establishment institutions, but it is not "shut down". I can't download torrents from Amazon.com, but that doesn't mean that they've effectively shut down the bittorrent protocol.

 

[pcm81]

1. Bitcoin's "value" is derived from its properties, not its valuation.
2. There are energy sources that do not cost money.
3. It may be difficult to exchange the currency for fiat through establishment institutions, but it is not "shut down". I can't download torrents from Amazon.com, but that doesn't mean that they've effectively shut down the bittorrent protocol.

1. It's current value roughly $6. You can argue otherwise; but then i can try to convince you that the rock i found yesturday in my yard has a value of $1,000,000,000 since i can use it to hit intruder over the head and potentially save my life.

2. Free energy? Good luck with that.

3. I said for practical purposes.

 

[taltamir]

2. There are energy sources that do not cost money.

No, there aren't.
There are energy sources where you pay upfront for a system with a limited lifespan that generates electricity from a renewable resource like wind or sun.
But the system itself costs money and doesn't last forever.

And even if you have such a system most places have laws where the electric company must buy excess energy produced by them for the same price it sells. So you are still using up a resource with monetary value.